TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/988448
By this stage, with three days' racing under your belt, you'll want to ease the pace. And while Islington yields nothing to the South Bank, in terms of hip, it is a far more elegant neighbourhood—and, for somewhere so accessible to downtown, one that deserves to be far better known by visitors. In terms of per capita income, it includes some of the most prosperous Labour-voting wards in the land. Since 1983, it has returned as its MP Jeremy Corbyn, the maverick radical unexpectedly catapulted to the head of his party—yet street after street, square after garden square, Georgian brick townhouses exude complacent prosperity. Upper Street, the central artery, is lined with boutiques and bistros; and the cutting-edge Almeida Theatre draws feted stage performers to an intimate venue. As such, the people behind THE PIG AND BUTCHER know to expect discerning clientele at 80 Liverpool Road, N1 0QD; and that décor and ambience and music can only take you so far. So while the bare floorboards and rotor fans and simple furnishings may look formulaic, the only adornment that really matters here is the blackboard displaying a rudimentary map of Britain—highlighting the farms that stock the kitchen, from Kent to Speyside. The menu changes according to what has just arrived from these suppliers. And, true to the name, on- site butchery removes another knot in the quest for freshness, and enables the kitchen to process such rare breeds as White Park cattle, Iron Age pigs and Hebridean lamb. Thursday